In each iteration, it starts with a sentence that gives the location of the attack and the number of people killed or injured, and it ends with “citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Tuesday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place.” Reading it again this time, it took on even more relevance-not for pointing out the frequency of shootings, and that there are actions, like stricter gun laws, that could impact them-but for also echoing one alarming detail that emerged on Wednesday as the headline was circulating. Over the years, I’ve pretty much committed the original Onion article to memory. “But I usually recognize the headline as a concise indictment of a culture that’s hypnotized by guns and that’s signed off on people dying for the capital offense of being a fourth grader or standing in the frozen food aisle.” “I worry it’s just another part of the mass shooting ceremony-thoughts ‘n’ prayers, don’t politicize, #GunControlNow, and so on,” he said. Jason Roeder, who originally wrote the headline eight years ago, said as much to Rolling Stone this week. Sharing the story becomes, then, the thing distraught people do to remind themselves that there is some agreement things shouldn’t be this way. Americans know now that each incident will be followed by multiple calls for gun control, political stonewalling, and ultimately, little to no action. The Onion’s move showed not only the dreadful frequency of gun violence in the US, but also the sickening cycle of coping that follows them.

Onion headline meme